Working through the cobwebs
by dinon17
Summary: As long as you go past the dust, Naruto's mind is a rather genius thing. Under trained, yet being refined, Jiraiya will try his best to get his Godson to be as smart as Minato. Just as long as he keeps that damned journal.
1. Chapter 1

Naruto writes a journal, starting from when jiraiya searches for tsunade.

Naruto sat staring at the spot next to his bed roll. Rather tussled up, it was fairly obvious to anyone who might have seen him that he had just woken up. It was just past the break of dawn, and his sensei had already left the small clearing they had set camp up in for the last 2 days.

Besides the resting spot sat a small book, just the right size to fit in back pouch. It was colored a gentle rose color, with a faint orange tint to it. Sitting atop of the cover, was a small pencil. Along with these two items was a small balloon full of water. Not knowing what the heck the balloon was for, Naruto decided to at least leaf through the book. Maybe Jiraiya would have left instructions for how his day was to proceed.

Looking through the small journal, one could see it appeared brand new. So far only the opposite side of the cover had writing in it, and it lined most of the page. The handwriting was neat and crisp, as if it was actually printed with the book as much as that was unlikely.

 _Naruto,_

 _As it stands, I needed to quickly go and do some… Research, so I left you two things. A journal, and the instructions to the jutsu I wished to teach you. Now, I know that you did not get the most… instructive experience in the academy, so my instructions to you are this._

 _One, write in this journal frequently. Whenever you have stray thoughts that are unwise to speak at that exact moment, you need to plan out a new idea, or you just wanted to describe how you day went that day. Whatever you choose to write, keep it legible, and try your best not to write about ramen. You get one Gaki, and you better date each entry per day. I'll be glancing to see you are still doing your assignment._

 _Furthermore, the jutsu you will start working on is the Rasengan. It is a High ranked attack without hand signs, and most often performed with one hand. As it stands, you need to take that balloon, and attempt to pop it with only chakra. Once you have completed this step we will move on._

 _*little doodles of how the balloon looks as it explodes and how the rasengan looks in general * along with some extra information on some obvious details._

 _Your sensei,_

 _Super pervert, Hermit, Toad sage,_

 _Jiraiya._

Well, atleast he picked a decent color for the book, thought Naruto. Picking up the book, he ventured a little away from camp to a flat boulder to learn his new jutsu. Looking at the book, Naruto could venture that he had to make the balloon pop through a method of making his chakra displace the water enough that it would destroy the balloon… How would one go about that? Merely utilizing chakra in a new way is frustrating, let alone with a monumental task like destabilizing a physical existence with it. Naruto could only sigh as he started to monkey around with the ball of water.

Jiraiya sat in a dense tree observing Naruto's process with the Water balloon. Well nothing special, the teacher wished to know how his student would attempt to split apart and solve this task. He didn't think he would solve it on his own, not for a second. However Jiraiya was a experienced Shinobi, let alone Jonin Sensei, lest it go unsaid. Knowing how one would overcome a challenge was an important part of teaching. Well not a lot could be gleaned from just observing, the journal would give him a rather large amount of information on this subject. As of now though… Naruto wasn't doing anything important from what could be seen. As time could be spent better elsewhere... the pervert decided to summon a frog to make sure Naruto stayed safe. Running off into the forest, one could hear a rather _Disturbing giggle._

 _Diary entry 1, day 1._

 _Well, Since Sensei asked me to write this I should treat this seriously. So first off…_

 _I have nothing! This is hard. All I have to go off of is that I need to blow up the balloon with my chakra. I mean, I don't know how to make a spiky ball of death, the only thing I've ever seen even remotely close to it is Kakashi's chidori. It's also held in your hand, and is a ball kinda thing. I guess it's like the Chidori than? Because the Chidori like like a unstable ball of Chakra in your hand. It seems to be everywhere at once. Sometimes up… others down and to the side. Ah whatever. I'm hungry from just pouring chakra into this thing, I've tried all the directions I could think of. Ramen here I come!_

Closing the book, Naruto went off to find wood and cook himself ramen.

Authors notes- Well I was bored mowing this little thing came up in my mind. So the general principle is a test, to pretty much figure out how one would write a story not entirely through diary, yet still give a good amount of characterization to the MC and be a good excuse to try writing in first person perspective.

Apart from that this will probably be something I tinker with when i'm bored. have fun.


	2. Chapter 2

"How's the progress Gaki?" asked Jiraiya.

Taking a drink from his canteen, Naruto sighed then answered "It's going ok, but I still don't get exactly how I'm supposed to pop the balloon. As of now, all I can really do is spin it around in a circle."

It was now night. Naruto, a little worn out from using his chakra the whole day, was a bit of a mess. His Orange jacket and pants had a few dirt splotches on them, from when he sat down to rest. Jiraiya was relatively the same, wearing his ever present outfit of a red Over coat and green kimono under it. Sitting on opposite sides of a fire, Jiraiya and Naruto had eaten dinner and were soon to prepare for bed.

"Well, I guess showing it to you in person would actually help," He stood up and moved over to where Naruto was. "When you create the Rasengan, you should notice that it spins in a orb. The jutsu is mainly a giant drill without a point, always moving in several directions at once. If you can figure out which way your chakra naturally spins, it would make accomplishing this easier." Jiraiya said while standing up. "Watch closely." He said as he formed a Rasengan.

Naruto studied it for a moment before Jiraiya walked over to a tree and shoved his hand into the bark. A loud grinding came from the orb before Jiraiya stopped the jutsu and let Naruto look at the mark on the tree.

"How would I find out which way my chakra spins? I didn't even know our chakra spun," questioned Naruto.

"Every living thing that has chakra follows this system. As it is understood, chakra circulates around the body when you form it. When you concentrate chakra, usually you spin it in a tight spiral, which allows you to use large quantities. And the easiest way to tell which way it spins is by your hair." Lectured Jiraiya.

"I see…" Naruto stated, well he started poking and prodding his hair to figure out which way it spun.

"Well, I'm going to leave you to that. Tomorrow we are going into town so I can finish getting information on Tsunade," Jiraiya said with a yawn while walking to his bed roll.

Naruto stopped tracing his hair and glared at Jiraiya, "Look here! You said you would train me, yet so far all I've done is spin water in a balloon and haven't gotten anywhere. You could atleast give me a few more tips on this!"

Jiraiya stopped and rose his eyebrow to Naruto. "You seem to misunderstand something brat. I'm not your friend, nor your father or your brother. I'm your sensei, I am here to teach you what I want to and how I want to. If you want to learn this jutsu, you're going to figure out how to do the rest by yourself. I didn't hold your hand when you kicked Neji into the dirt, I didn't hold your hand when you found out Hiruzen died, And I'm not gonna hold your hand when you need me the most. So grow up, and figure it out."

Naruto stood there, watching Jiraiya get into his bed roll. Spinning around, he grabbed his journal and ran off into the woods.

The forest was silent, and the bright light of the full moon shaded everything teal. Throughout the forest all the animals sat weary of a certain boy wearing a orange jacket. Naruto sat halfway up a tree, sitting on the thick part of a branch. He was looking at the moon, contemplating the words Jiraiya said to him that night.

 _Diary entry, 2, day 1_

 _I don't know what Jiraiya wants from me. He has to understand that this is hard, and I don't have all the time in the world to learn just one jutsu. I wanna be the Hokage, and before that a ninja worth respecting. I can't sit still and take my time with this justu. I'll learn this jutsu and show Jiraiya that I shouldn't be underestimated! Now, he said that I need to find the way my hair grows and follow that to better control the chakra._

Putting down his pencil, Naruto followed the way his hair grew with his hand and traced its growth to the right. Picking up the balloon, Naruto proceeded to attempt to pop the balloon by channeling his chakra counter clockwise.

And all it did was swirl around. It didn't become spiky like how Jiraiya told him it was supposed to be. He tried pushing the chakra faster, harder, and in different spots in the balloon. However he did find that it seemed to work best when it was in the center. When it was in the center it seemed to be much more even and easier to control. However hour after hour he still couldn't get it to pop. He kept going till he collapsed from chakra exhaustion.

Naruto woke up hours later, when the sun was high into the sky and bugs were sounding aloud. Groaning to the foot prodding him to wake up, he raised his eyes to Jiraiya leaning over him. "Sure are taking your time waking up Gaki, I wanted to leave an hour earlier, but i thought you could use the sleep," Jiraiya stated.

"Yea, sorry, I stayed up later than I should have. I am almost there though, a bit more and I swear I'll have it figured out."

"Oh really now? I'll be waiting for you to finish this step than. Now, since you're awake, let's move to the town a few hours away so we can find Tsunade." Not waiting for Naruto to get up, Jiraiya started walking in the direction of the town.

Having arrived at town, they booked into a rather large inn. Jiraiya went off to gather information and research in the red light district, while Naruto went off to find a training spot and explore the town. However the town was decent sized, it was no shinobi village. Naruto couldn't find anything worth buying, besides for a nice ramen store on the outskirts of town. Along with that, he found a spot to practice a few minutes walk away from the inn. It was a small clearing in town, a bit deserted yet not ruins. Plopping down, Naruto trained throughout the day.

As it would have it, Jiraiya hadn't found out anything besides for a few women who seemed to have a lead. Thus he kept going back day after day. Naruto would use this time training, with a small break every few days when Jiraiya would force him to not use chakra. This was how it proceeded for roughly a two weeks. Day after day Naruto would try to pop the balloon, with nothing coming out of it. His hands would shake, he would fall from exhaustion, and he would get back up and try again. Till one day he stayed at the inn to rest for a day.

A cat the owner owned, that was colored white with black splotches was running around the inn while Naruto and other patrons ate. It wasn't particularly busy, but still had enough people that it wasn't dead.

The cat, which found Naruto's balloon on the table, ended up playing with it without him noticing. As luck would have it, Naruto glanced over when the cat got particularly aggressive with his playing. Knocking the balloon back and forth, repeatedly the balloon would have the water push against the sides of the balloon. Just as Naruto got up to stop the cat, the balloon popped with Naruto just standing stock still seeing it splash water everywhere. Getting a devious smile on his face, he ran over to his room where he found Jiraiya sleeping off a hangover. Taking a new balloon he held it over Jiraiya's face. And Jiraiya woke up spluttering and soaked in water.

 **Author's Notes - Yo guys, so I wrote this, and actually edited a bit. I think it turned out ok. I gotta go to work though, so I'll leave yall this. Oh, and just a heads up, if you find any errors, or any kind of suggestions don't be afraid to mention it in reviews. Take care.**


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